Groups backing Armenian genocide resolution

September 6, 2007 9:00am

An Armenian American group has lined up an array of Jewish groups to back a congressional resolution recognizing the Ottoman-era genocide.

The Armenian National Committee of America had garnered the support of at least 12 groups by Thursday including the Union of Reform Judaism, Americans for Peace Now, the Zionist Organization of America and the Progressive Jewish Alliance.

The effort comes in the wake of the Anti-Defamation League backing down last month and recognizing the 1915-16 massacres as “tantamount to genocide” after a number of Massachusetts towns threatened to cut off the ADL because it refused to recognize the genocide.

The resolution, introduced by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a Jewish congressman with a substantial Armenian American community, has majority support in the U.S. House of Representatives but has yet to come to a vote. A number of Jewish groups including the ADL had quietly opposed its passage, saying it could harm Turkey-Israel relations and jeopardize the Jewish community in Turkey.